Technology News

SAN FRANCISCO - Google Inc. is determined to gain more influence over how the Web is used on mobile phones, even if the next step in the quest tramples some of the relationships forged during its two-year expansion into the wireless industry.

With Mac sales expected to reach as high as 2.9 million this quarter, the last thing Apple needs is bad publicity about its new iMac with 27-inch screen. But YouTube clips of flickering screens on the new units, which went on sale Oct. 20, can't be good news. As of Monday morning there were 45 such clips on the site, with links on Apple user forums. The forums also had links to clips on other video-sharing sites, like gallery.me.com.

A report from the New York Times this weekend suggests that the perception that AT&T has an inferior wireless network may be more than greatly exaggerated--they might be flat wrong. Not only that, but it may be the Apple iPhone that is the root of the problems that are sullying AT&T's reputation.

ALBANY, N.Y. - A new video game designed to help New York students learn to manage their money tries to make the dullness of balancing a checkbook look more like the thrill of driving for a touchdown.

LOS ANGELES - The cinematic action adventure "Uncharted 2: Among Thieves" nabbed three prizes including game of the year at the Spike TV Video Game Awards.

With more children playing video games, educators are increasingly partnering with game developers to create interactive ways to explain molecular biology or space. One new game called "Immune Attack" is a first-person shooter in which the targets are proteins on veins' interior surfaces. Another game designed in conjunction with NASA, "MoonBase Alpha," requires players to use math and scientific thinking to overcome challenges that astronauts might face one day.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The National Governors Association is getting behind Ohio's effort to maintain a tax on the satellite television industry.

With Mac sales expected to reach as high as 2.9 million this quarter, the last thing Apple needs is bad publicity about its new iMac with 27-inch screen. But YouTube clips of flickering screens on the new units, which went on sale Oct. 20, can't be good news. As of Monday morning there were 45 such clips on the site, with links on Apple user forums. The forums also had links to clips on other video-sharing sites, like gallery.me.com.

LOS ANGELES - With more fads than folks at an "American Idol" audition, the past decade has been a difficult time to culturally define. One day, everyone was updating their MySpace profiles while sporting Ugg boots and sipping cosmopolitans. The next, they were creating Facebook pages while donning Ed Hardy T-shirts and downing energy drinks.

Adobe is investigating new reports that hackers are attacking a previously unknown bug in the latest version of the company's Reader and Acrobat software.

The Obama administration has decided to join United Nations talks on cyberwar and Internet crime. After several years of staying out of talks between the U.N. and other countries, the U.S. will participate in discussions with Russia and the U.N.'s Arms Control Committee, sources told The New York Times.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States has begun talks with Russia and a UN arms control committee about strengthening Internet security and limiting military use of cyberspace, The New York Times reported.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc on Monday said strong demand for its new iMac personal computer had it working hard to keep up, and the company apologized for any delays in deliveries to customers.

With Mac sales expected to reach as high as 2.9 million this quarter, the last thing Apple needs is bad publicity about its new iMac with 27-inch screen. But YouTube clips of flickering screens on the new units, which went on sale Oct. 20, can't be good news. As of Monday morning there were 45 such clips on the site, with links on Apple user forums. The forums also had links to clips on other video-sharing sites, like gallery.me.com.

A report from the New York Times this weekend suggests that the perception that AT&T has an inferior wireless network may be more than greatly exaggerated--they might be flat wrong. Not only that, but it may be the Apple iPhone that is the root of the problems that are sullying AT&T's reputation.

The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) has brought a copyright lawsuit against 14 consumer electronics companies for allegedly violating GNU General Public License (GPL) in the use of GPL-licensed software in their products. Among those named in the suit are Best Buy, JVC, Western Digital Technologies and Westinghouse.

It's been a few months since the Amazon Kindle was hacked to run X applications or even Ubuntu. Over the weekend a report came in saying the Barnes & Noble Nook e-book reader had been hacked to grant users root access, just a few days after the Android-based e-book reader was released.

French ERP (enterprise resource planning) vendor Nexedi made a public bid Monday to take over stewardship of the open-source MySQL database from Sun Microsystems, offering a symbolic €1 in return.

LONDON - Those baby-faced people now have another reason to be smug: a new Danish study says looking young apparently means a longer life.

COPENHAGEN - New computer modeling suggests the Arctic Ocean may be nearly ice-free in the summertime as early as 2014, Al Gore said Monday at the U.N. climate conference. This new projection, following several years of dramatic retreat by polar sea ice, suggests that the ice cap may nearly vanish in the summer much sooner than the year 2030, as was forecast by a U.S. government agency eight months ago.

SYDNEY (AFP) - An island-sized iceberg is breaking up as it drifts closer to Australia, producing hundreds of smaller slabs spread over a massive area of ocean, experts said Monday.